natural resources
Despite its small size, Albania is a country rich in natural resources, including petroleum both on- and offshore, natural gas reserves, coal, and various metals, particularly chromite reserves for which Albania ranks first in Europe. Frost & Fire Consulting’s partners experience in this sector includes the following:
Petroleum
- drafting legislation for the oil and gas drilling and production industry;
- negotiating the agreements and overseeing the issuance of some of the most significant concessionary licenses of oil and gas fields;
- establishing the framework for the tax regime of the oil refining industry;
- leading the licensing process of the companies operating in this sector;
- issuaing concession licenses for private terminals to deposit hydrocarbons and establishing the tax model for such terminals.
Mining and Metals
- assisting the drafting of the legislation regulating this industry, including the legislation related to the licensing of the operators operating in the exploration, excavation/development, and exploitation of natural resources;
- negotiating the agreements and overseeing the issuance of some of the most significant concessionary licenses of such natural resources, including the enrichment of minerals industry;
- developing the taxation regime for different phases of such an industry;
- resolving in the dispute resolution between market operators and various administrative organs.
Natural Gas
- Negotiating the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) Project on behalf of the Albanian government. TAP transports natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe. The approximately 870-km-long pipeline will connect with the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline near the Turkish-Greek border, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy with the prospect of further transport to some of the largest European markets such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Austria.
